Prepare for all the sunshine pumping stories about how physical this team is. Running back room is a strength, much bigger faster bodies all over the field, Shapen is in the best shape of his life, yada yada. Do not get sucked in to believing the propaganda. I do every 17ing year. And get wooly all the way to game 3. Protect what few functional brain cells you have from the hope that turns to crushing reality in the fall.
Spring football
- Thread starter Howiefeltersnstch
- Start date
Never worked harder. Last year's off-seasson S&C program was nothing compared to this.
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So it’s “Shapen” up to be a good year?
Would be very lucky to make it to game 3 this year
Oh, it's already started. I just listened to Lebby's press conference, and I really do like the guy, but the coach speak about Shapen, the size of the team, and attitude improvements was abundant.
Here's the usual preseason cycle that we're about to go through
1. Spring game is played - "Look at the athletes on this team and how much fun they're having! If you can't see the improvement, you're blind!!!"
2 Fall practice - "Y'all wouldn't believe what some of the guys are doing at practice. Forget about us just improving, we may be bowling this year"
3. First game (nerve wracking, close win against USM) - "Hey, a win's a win, and you're always going to have to shake off some rust in your first game"
4. Get annihilated by UT, A&M, UF, Texas... - "Well, what did y'all expect?? They're good! It's gonna take 75 years to recover from the Arnett trainwreck!!!"
One thing Lebby alluded to in his press conference yesterday was we would be looking for OL help in the spring portal which tells me our OL will be a concern. Bad OL = Broken Shapen
With that said, how much quality OL help/depth would we really get in the spring portal? I would think we would be picking from the leftovers at best.
With that said, how much quality OL help/depth would we really get in the spring portal? I would think we would be picking from the leftovers at best.
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I see maybe 3 games we could handle and another winless season in the SEC.
2025 Schedule
Aug. 30 – at Southern Miss
Sept. 6 – Arizona State
Sept. 13 – Alcorn State
Sept. 20 – Northern Illinois
Sept. 27 – Tennessee
Oct. 4 – at Texas A&M
Oct. 11 – Open Date
Oct. 18 – at Florida
Oct. 25 – Texas
Nov. 1 – at Arkansas
Nov. 8 – Georgia
Nov. 15 – at Missouri
Nov. 22 – Open Date
Nov. 29 – Ole Miss
2025 Schedule
Aug. 30 – at Southern Miss
Sept. 6 – Arizona State
Sept. 13 – Alcorn State
Sept. 20 – Northern Illinois
Sept. 27 – Tennessee
Oct. 4 – at Texas A&M
Oct. 11 – Open Date
Oct. 18 – at Florida
Oct. 25 – Texas
Nov. 1 – at Arkansas
Nov. 8 – Georgia
Nov. 15 – at Missouri
Nov. 22 – Open Date
Nov. 29 – Ole Miss
4 wins is the ceiling for this team.
Here's a not so hot take:
We will be improved
We will still suck
We will be improved
We will still suck
I see 2 dates I feel comfortable with State not losing. October 11 and November 22.
We will never be great, a blue blood, relevant, or whatever you want to call it in college football, at least as long as NIL and the transfer portal Exists. We may catch lightning in a bottle one year and actually play ourselves into playoff contention but it will be an anomaly. We can’t sustain it year in and year out. Here’s why. We can’t afford to play the game in its current guise. We have a small alumni base. We are located in the poorest state in the nation. We share this state with the cheating immoral scum in Oxford, plus we are in the shadow of the delusional fan base monster down the road in Tuscaloosa. A large portion of graduates leave the state for other opportunities thus weakening their ties to the university. A large portion of our alums are in Agriculture fields and engineering/ technical fields which are by nature fiscally conservative fields. There’s not enough of us who get their self worth from buying an all star wide receiver or QB. We’re not going to play the money game that college football has become. I don’t care if we invest 100% of our NIL funds in football, it’s just a fraction of what the Bamas, LSU, Texas, Georgia, and the current blue bloods can and will invest in players. I need a beer or twelve.
It's too bad the program is currently on such a low limb. This is probably the best home schedule we've ever had from
A big name opponent standpoint. Even Az St was in the playoff last year.
It’s the worst home schedule we could possibly have. 4 guaranteed SEC home losses. Ugh. 17 playing big name teams. I want to play teams we can beat. The 2014 team would struggle with this schedule.
Not so fast, can we beat off??? Will the team be Ready, Ready!
You do realize there is a spring portal window right….
So yeah we will be looking for two OL and maybe two corners. So not leftovers
Fair enough. Just hard for the stadium as a whole to get engaged when playing patsies. 2014 team may not win, but there would at least be a sense of excitement at the games thinking we could. Not "guess how bad it will be" like it is now.
I'm always cynical. Good news about offensive production? Our defense must suck. Good news about defense wrecking the offense? We have O-line issues.
I would be surprised if we won more than four. Looks pretty rough. Not sure if we can beat Arkansas or Missouri. Maybe we can over achieve and take one of them down.
I agree with every word you posted and I don't think there's a soul who knows exactly how this is all going to work out for us.
Maybe Missouri or Arkansas. Maybe. Probably not. I was not prepared for how BAD our defense was last year. I mean our offense wasn't the best, but it was at least mediocre. That defense was historically bad. Like, 1995 bad.
90% of the time when you come to this board.....always so encouraging!
Unless there is a massive improvement in the trenches both sides we won’t be within 7 points of any SEC team.
